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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

CounterCurrents: USA & India, Time For Creative Resistance

Dear Friend,

Two of the greatest democracies in the world, India and United States, are going through almost similar traumatic phase in their history. These are dark days for both democracies. Is it time to lose hope? Frida Berrigan writes that it is time for creative resistance. So is the case for India.

Chinese human rights activist and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo's life, who is suffering from cancer, is in grave danger, as Chinese government is not allowing him to travel outside the country for better treatment

On Monday seven Amarnath pilgrims were killed in a terrorist attack in Anantnag of strife torn Jammu & Kashmir. Kashmiris were unanimous in their condemnation of this dastardly act, reaffirming their long cherished Kashmiriyat.

M.K Adithya takes us down the history lane to the Telegana armed struggle, through the story of a peasant martyr, Komarayya.

We also need to oppose – with words and deeds – the forces of consumerism in our own communities. The global consumer culture is not only the engine of climate change, species die-off, ocean dead zones, and many other assaults on the biosphere, it ultimately fails to meet real human needs. The price of the consumer culture is not measured in the cheap commodities that fill our homes and then, all too soon, the nearest landfill. Its real cost is measured in eating disorders, an epidemic of depression, heightened social conflict, and rising rates of addiction – not just to opioids, but to ‘shopping’, video games, and the internet. It’s time to envision – and take steps to create – an economy that doesn’t destroy people and the planet just to satisfy the growth imperatives of global capital.

Can We Stop Feeling Quite So Helpless And Hopeless In A World On The Skids?

President Trump has put a new twist on this American compact. He’s ready to mobilize us, but only to render him our loyalty (whatever that may mean) and adoration. Giving him such loyalty these days is a growing white supremacy movement emboldened to emerge from the shadows and into the streets with its hate and violence on display. The Trump presidency has certainly provoked disdain, disgust, mistrust, resistance, and protest — but so far, not sustained, alternative, creative activity, the sort of things that would support this country literally and figuratively over the true long haul.

The Special Inspector general for Iraq Reconstruction has claimed that the $60 billion in US funds spent over 10 years has produced little, while the Iraqi government’s own effort over $138 billion fared little better. Such efforts, ruinously delayed, will provide sweet music for the next militant upsurge

The seven-million-strong American Muslim Community Sunday (July 9) mourned the death of Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a prolific author and professor whose career centered on dismantling stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in the US media. He was perhaps most famous for his book “Reel Bad Arabs,” where he chronicled over 900 movies where Arabs were represented negatively.

Israel’s Ever-More Sadistic Reprisals Help Shore Up A Sense Of Victimhood

When Israel passed a new counter-terrorism law last year, Ayman Odeh, a leader of the country’s large minority of Palestinian citizens, described its draconian measures as colonialism’s “last gasp”. He said: “I see … the panic of the French at the end of the occupation of Algeria.” The panic and cruelty plumbed new depths last week, when Israeli officials launched a $2.3 million lawsuit against the family of Fadi Qanbar, who crashed a truck into soldiers in Jerusalem in January, killing four. He was shot dead at the scene.

We’ve taken the time to hash out some of the most pernicious mendacities we’ve come across in our (relatively) young lives, in the workplace, in our private lives, and in the media. Please share these counter-arguments far and wide, in order to educate your fellow citizens, and, if necessary, to provide the intellectual beat-downs needed when arguing with pro-capitalists. So without further ado, here is our list of the most devious “Lies that Capitalists Tell Us”:

Liu Xiaobo (born-28 December 1955), the only Nobel Peace Prize winner from authoritarian Communist state China appears to be on death bed. Chinese government has disallowed him to move out of the country for the liver cancer treatment. China fears lest he should emerge as the magnet for the anti Chinese forces which are gaining ground at least in the minds of the people of the country.

In India, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Ditches Science for Spin in Push for GM Mustard

The case surrounding the approval of genetically modified (GM) mustard in India is coming to a head on the back of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) recommending approval. The final decision now rests with Harsh Vardhan, minister of the environment. As India’s first commercial GM food crop, the concern is that it is in effect a Trojan horse crop and an unlawful attempt to impose GM food crops on the country. At present, the only GM crop planted in India is cotton.

DDA officials in meeting agreed for not doing any further demolition in the slums. Community Representatives were very happy with the meeting but they were also of the view that the fight is half way as of now and there is a long way to go

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness with its phenomenal breadth and depth of intelligence and unpredictable creativity far outstrips The God of Small Things. It is wondrously creative. It is an experience that must be mindfully savoured as you wonder word by word where Roy’s brilliance is taking you… what is around the roller coasting corner of the next word.. poetry that will make you gasp, quirkiness that charms, flagellating condemnation, a chuckle of humour, awesome acuity, shuddering contempt, fierce tenderness, brittle satire, outlandish juxtapositions where Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut sit square with Torture, and where Mango Frooti can spark a Massacre.

While a few are lucky to climb up (with the help of lawyers) to reach the step that allows them acquittal, the majority remain imprisoned for years in jails all over India, as under trial prisoners. Do we have to wait for another Bastille , to rescue these innocent poor from the jails, and to sing with Joan Baez: “Raise the prisons to the ground” ?

70th anniversary of The Martyrdom of Komarayya: A Turning Point in Telangana People’s Revolutionary Movement

The present article marks the 70th Death Anniversary of Komarayya, who was a local activist, and a member of the then recently formed volunteer squad, and he was not a leader. He was the first among 4000 communist and peasant revolutionaries of Telangana People’s Revolutionary Movement (1940-51) who were killed by the ruling classes, represented by the Nizam of princely kingdom of Hyderabad upto September 1948, and later by new India’s Nehru-Patel regime.

Despite being a land where Jewish communities thrived, historically, Kerala’s public mind remained a natural sympathizer for the cause of Palestine. Deeply embedded in Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much hyped alliance with Isreal is an affirmation from the Left of their untenable ideological support for Palestine in changing times.

Protest Against Mob Lynchings And The Role Of Civil Society In Breaking The Silence

The ‘Not In My Name’ campaigners held a vigil at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, 11 July, 2017, 7 p.m. to mourn the killings of Amarnath pilgrims a day earlier. For this gathering arithmetic (numbers) went against the protesters. At any given point of time the number was under one hundred.

Soon after the Attack on Civilian Bus in which Seven Amarnath Pilgrims Killed and Dozens Injured, on Monday. Widespread condemnation poured out from every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley. Kashmiris took Social media, (Facebook, Twitter) Responses against the Painful attack

Any cowardly, armed or mobbed attack on unarmed people must be condemned in no uncertain terms. We, who came out in “Not in my name” protest at Jantar-Mantar against Gorakshak mob lynching, also came out to protest against the ghastly act of attack on Amarnath pilgrims. But why the Salim Sheikh, is, instead of being praised for his presence of mind; as a sensitive human; as a smart, intelligent driver, is being appreciated with over emphasis of his being Muslim, which had no role in his heroic role of driving through the rain of bullets.